Cray wasn’t sure where it all started going wrong, but there was a definite point on from where it all went to shit and there was nothing he could do to get rid of the problem. It was probably Jrt’kn’s fault but Mack had a lot to do with it as well and so did Marr. For over three months now they had been on the streets of downtown and occasionally suburbia surviving in a very low key, low threat situation. Pretending to be SHIVER sleepers, bombing the odd convoy, killing the odd squad of enemy agents, picking up the dataslug once a week from under the Dunkin Dognutz stand in a small suburban take away. Their spy had been good, he’d fed them a lot of detailed information on their targets, made them a few dollars on the side selling through the black market and been checking out thoroughly their street contacts.
Recently though the spy in his reports began to start getting agitated and requested that they set him up a bolthole in upper downtown. Cray didn’t seem to think this was a problem and got an old lady landlord to put aside a little flat for the princely sum of 20 uni’s a week that only he and Marr knew about. It must have been that he’d relaxed his command somewhat and let his troops operate on their own occasionally, he’d thought they where big enough to look after themselves, do their duties unsupervised and he’d never let them stray far from the APC. There was an element of disappointment about that, but it was too late now.
Gary, Marr and Waylan where out on a hit to do some wetwork Chicane had found them that was something of a priority, low threat, low gain stuff mostly so he had trusted Marr to make sure the other two behaved and got the job done.
Jrt’kn, he’d sent the shaktar out to get some food and this was where it all started to go wrong. Here he was, sitting in a bar having just met up with the local fence and sold the woman a complete deathsuit and some other ebb stuff he had no idea about but it fetched a premium price that’s for sure. Cray felt sorry for her a little, she had once been a successful SLA operative and from what he and Chicane could put together, she’d been stitched up for something on Artery that wasn’t her fault. The array of tiny electronics he carried had cleared her out of any chance that SLA had bugs in her brain or anywhere else for that matter, a bit of streetwork from Waylon had made sure and she was confirmed Darknight. She asked a lot of questions and knew he wasn’t Sgt Davidson 232nd Precinct, ‘corrupt SHIVER’. Jrt’kn had gutted the little Darknight scout she had sent after them to recon their APC and see where they went, there hadn’t been any other since either but it made a point. Mary-Lee picked up her little bundle of ebb goodies under the table while Cray counted out the slabs of uni’s in his lap. Smiled with her good side and bid him goodnight, the other half of her face was a ruination of pink scar tissue and that’s what made Cray feel sorry for her. He didn’t like seeing hurt women or kids, he’d still quite happily blow her in half with the DRAUG revolver under the table too if he even slightly suspected her of selling them out. Darknight didn’t like Thresher, but not as much as they both hated SLA so there was just a little cold war of quietly fucking each other over on occasion.
So Sgt Davidson as he was now known to the barkeep ordered himself a shot of whiskey, watched Mary-Lee walk off into the night. He wouldn’t stay for long, Mack was out there keeping an eye on the place from across the street. Cray come to form a good relationship with the troops now and no longer had any reason to distrust the sapper after both of them had saved each others lives at least half a dozen times in the last few months. One hundred and twenty thousand uni’s for the ebb gear, Ebons had just made themselves a priority target for that amount of money. Easy to kill, stupid and worth a lot of money to the blackmarket. It was like shooting fish in a barrel.
With a grenade launcher.
The majority of the SLA agents they came across had no idea of tactics, overly trusting of the nice guys in green armour and hopelessly outgunned when it came to a throw down. Still, they where dangerous in their own way but at least the huge biogenetic lumps of meat they often toted around with their squads, as they called them. Couldn’t think their way out the front door without being led there by the nice friendly ebon so worried about the critters feelings. What a joke, the biggest joke was that if you went near them when they had a camera they hauled out knives half the time, wasted time with verbal abuse or thinking up some ‘cool lines’, apparently they where budding actors too.
Cray had reassessed their situation with his men, they where going to survive the next three months, make a bit of money and bug out at the end of it, he shoved the money in the little backpack and ordered a bottle for the guys. A car pulled up across the street, he noticed it mostly because it wasn’t the usual junker that gangers had, matt black with more than its fair share of dents admittedly but it was full of people with armour and guns.
The Slop in the fancy silverback got out and started heading across the road whilst the rest except for the driver and formed up around the vehicle. Any one of their weapons where more than enough to ream the arse out of this body blocker and it made Cray feel more than a bit naked.
"Mack you there"
"I see ‘em boss, taken care of"
"Good"
Mr Silverback looked around the bar, found Cray and headed over to him which made his heart stop for a moment while he calmed himself, "hey sarge, theres been a stabbing up the road, some shaktar killed a grocery clerk and a couple of Monarchs. Know anything about it?"
"News to me, I got off duty a few hours ago, been here all since."
"Ah, ok", the Slop looked disappointed but convinced for now, Cray hoped it was the whiskey that was making him sweat and not fear. There was only one shaktar they knew about here and Cray was sure as hell it was his shaktar!
"Sorry, cant help you partner"
"Thanks anyway."
The only thing the Cray was thankful for was the Slop leaving, until he looked over the man’s shoulder and saw Mack walking casually past the car and drop something. "You fool", Cray cursed under his breath as the Slop reached the door, there was a yell from over the road and Mack bolted. The frother that was there with them was quicker, caught up to the slower running sapper with frightening speed and agility. The brain waster hauled out a funny ebb gun and another guy with an assault rifle got it off his shoulder and started aiming. Mack was decked instantly, the blow from the sword hit him in the back and he went down sprawling, even before he realised it the DRAUG was in Cray’s hand and lining up the Slop at the door. He couldn’t let Mack die there like that or be captured and tortured. As the frother swung his blade around for the killing blow Cray fired the revolver, the Slop fell down with a fist-sized hole in the back of his shiny armour. The rest of his squad stopped looking at Mack on the ground long enough for the wounded man to roll on his back and hit the radio detonator.
There wasnt going to be any evidence of Mack, the squad or even most of the street except for the dead Slop in the bar but that wasnt worth trying to cover up. It was all gone in a flash of white and anything living disappeared in a pink mist within 15 metres of the epicenter. Cray was out the back door and running when the second explosion was heard, or mostly ‘felt’ as his ears where still ringing from the first one. That one was further off, it didn't matter for now but he knew Marr had taken a few kilo’s of HBX with him and the other team, it had to be them, "you dere Shivas comes with us!" Cray had cleared the back alley and was in the side street when some big drooling retard of a Chagrin stormer jogged up behind him. "Where? Go where with you?" He was angry enough to be argumentative with the dumb lunk, besides, it wouldn't damage what it thought was SLA property unless give specific orders to do so.
"Deres a bin a big bomb ober thers!"
"Thats where Im going you fucking idiot."
"Oh! Okies I lead, you cover me!"
Cray took a look around to see that no other SLA employees where about and fell in behind the bounding Chagrin as it led the charge up to the street corner. He couldn’t see anyone, they’d all run off from the explosion which looked to have broken glass for the surrounding 200 metres or so. He took out the DRAUG, drew a gentle bead on the stormers head and pulled the trigger once it had gotten 30 feet in front of him, "grow this back bitch." The 990 grain DU sabot round melted a nice fist sized hole in the back of the creatures helmet whilst the remaining shrapnel, bits of armour and radioactive plasma cloud of depleted uranium cooked, charred and blew the front visor out. He was in the mood to hurt things right now and equally tempted not to give Marr his revolver back, it really did what he said it would.
Upon getting back to the security of the APC Cray found a large bag full of groceries and a note from Jrt’kn, he had a bad feeling about this and reluctantly opened it. Dear sir, I have to fulfill my duty by killing my traitorous family here on Mort. If I survive I will meet you again. Sorry for the short notice.
Cray used up his range of descriptive expletives within the first 15 seconds and then managed to fit a dozen more in that he made up before sitting down in the drivers seat and let out a resigned sigh of hopelessness.